2D Mario Evolutionary Design

We've already established that Super Mario Brothers is not only a great game, but one of the greatest games ever made. So, if it is that good, how can any other game improve upon it? As impossible as the task may seem, Super Mario Bros. 3 outdid Super Mario Bros. and on the N.E.S. hardware to boot. Bros.3 took everything that was good about Super Mario Bros., refined the mechanics and added more creativity to the enemies, player, and level elements.

Many of the changes that make Bros.3 so good are natural extensions of the mechanics and options that the original started. For example, if players are free to go forward in the original Super Mario Brothers, why aren't they free to go backward? The developers of Bros.3 must have thought the same thing. It doesn't make much sense to limited the players movement backward simply because those areas have been scrolled past already. And extending off of that idea came the ability to go upward. In Bros. 3 players can fly up and over the dangers of the terrestrial world and soar through the skies. The vertical and horizontal freedoms allowed the developers to create levels unlike anything that had ever been experienced before.

But what about Super Mario World or New Super Mario Brothers? How do these games stack up against the power houses that are Super Mario Bros. and Bros.3? Because all the 2D Mario platformers are so similar, comparing their differences and how the unique design choices shaped their overall products becomes a highly instructive exercise.

Check out the chart....

. Super Mario Bros. Lost Levels Bros. 3 World New SMB . Jump "super" jump off of enemies with precise timing of the jump button can super jump by holding the jump button before landing on an enemy twirl jump: Can destroy bricks below Big Mario. Can jump off of dangerous enemy elements. Shorter than normal jump. removed twirl jump. can turn around in mid air. added the triple jump. Added a wall kick and wall slide. . Run ---- run meter invisible meter 3 speed rev up run . Walk ---- 2 speed rev up . Stand ------ -------------- --------- --------- . Duck (when Big to Compact into small Mario size) ---------- ---------- ---------- can duck when Small Mario but not Super Small Mario . ground pound/butt stomp . Fire Flower ------ powers up Small Mario into Big Fire Mario --------- power-ups dance to the music . mushroom + evil mushroom removed evil mushroom ----- power-ups dance to the music . can store power-ups in the over world menu can store power-up in a safe box at the top of the HUD in the level Stores power-up on the touch screen. . . enemies dance to the music . Koopa --------- Mario can grab/hold shells. Koopa shells can destroy bricks. Mario can kick shells straight up. removed shell up-kick ability . Mario can take 2 hits max ----------- 3 hits (fire/leaf power-up) 4 hits (yoshi) 3 hits (fire/blue shell power-up) . enemies disappear if present at the end of the level --------- enemies are "zapped" ---------------- ------------- . Mario bounces off the surfaces underwater ---------- no bounce -------- ------------ . . can't scroll back ----------- can scroll back ------------ ---------------- . can't go up (loops to the bottom) ------------- can go up some can go up a lot some levels are designed more vertically so that players must continually travel up. .

. you get one shot to beat the game world check points ---------- + save option ---------

Without going into detail, the game I have the biggest problem with is New Super Mario Bros. The new mechanics that were added weakened and undermined the overall gameplay. Abilities like wall kicking turn what would be a threatening, dangerous pit into fun holes where players can wall kick in and out of to their hearts content. The triple jump, which originated from Mario 64 (a 3D platfomer), feels out of place in the limited and scrunched 2D world that was made to fit on a Nintendo DS screen. Because the level design in New Super Mario Bros. was so heavily inspired by the original, the developers have decided to removed the liberating vertical scrolling from the game. Without much flexibility vertically, the triple jump loses a lot of its practical use. Because of the poor design choices in New Super Mario Bros. the game feels like a watered down "Mario experience" rather than a solid platforming video game.

Oh well. At least we can still play Bros.3.

Comments

[Johnathan]

I feel similar about the 3d mario games as I do about the 2d ones in how they're, not necessarily bad but, "watered down".
For example, in Super mario Sunshine, you have the largest assortment of platforming abilities than in any other mario game, even if you subtract FLUDD. You have the side somersault, diving, triple jump, back flip, belly flop, super ground pound and, my favorite, the whirl jump. Ever since Sunshine, Mario's abilities have decreased. Even now with the new 3D Land, I have no idea why they made it so you have to charge up the back flip or why they removed the triple jump. It also sucks that they didn't design the levels so that you could fly with the tanooki tail so that verticality has been lost since Sunshine. They keep looking back to the NES Mario but never Mario 3 or Mario World.

[Richard Terrell (KirbyKid)]

@Johnathan

Since writing this article, I played the Mario platformers a lot more and did a lot more writing. My opinion on New Super Mario Bros has reversed. All this is explained in detail in my series "The Measure of Mario."

It's nice to have a lot of platforming mechanics, but the shear number of moves isn't what's most important. Depending on your movement speed, jump height, and air control, you may not need all those other abilities.

Still, NSMB, NSMBWii, and 3DLand have plenty of platforming mechanics. The cancel ground pound in mid air, the mid air spin/twirl, and the spin jump are a few examples of the "New" games. And in 3D land you have a roll and roll jump in addition to a side jump, long jump, run jump, crouch jump, and all the air control you could want.

You have to charge the back flip in 3D land because it's not a very important move. Crouch jumping (like in the 2D games) is much more important. Since the game is a hybrid of 2D and 3D Mario gameplay, the developers decided that crouch jumping is more important especially considering how good your standing/running jump is anyway.

They probably removed the triple jump because you can't see very far ahead of you to accurately plan the triple jumping. The camera is very zoomed in and very top down for much of the game. It wouldn't have worked so well. Good thing there's the roll jump and long jump.

Flying is completely overrated in 2D Mario games. It's neat and all, but it really stresses the level design too much. You'll either have to design 2 levels (sky and ground) or you'll be left with nothing much to do when you fly. Then you'll have to worry about limited the runways for Mario to gather speed, which affects the basic structure of the levels. Mario is all about that JUMP not that FLY. Nintendo realizes this and has limited flying in Mario games. The propeller suit and propeller block are the more recent cases.

[Johnathan]

Yeah, good point on all of those. It's easy to spiral into negativity sometimes when you look at things the way I just did before.
I didn't think bad at all of NSMB Wii but I still feel that the DS one is really easy and for some of the reasons you mentioned (wallkicking right out of pits).

[Richard Terrell (KirbyKid)]

@ Johnathan

Yeah. NSMB DS had too many powerups, I think. I did enjoy the challenge of finding all the star coins and freestyling on everything else. That made things harder for me.

I understand that the base level difficulty of Mario games is something many gamers want to be moderate-high.